Friday, September 30, 2011

According to the latest news reports, Chinese banks are on the verge of collapse. Although the banking system in China has substantial earnings, it holds so much bad debt that it puts the entire system at risk. Analysts fear that the situation in the banking sector may drag China’s growth rate down to zero.

In other news, the European Union is considering dropping the requirement that Turkish citizens obtain visas before entering its member states’ territories.

Meanwhile, actor Sean Penn joined the demonstrators in Tahrir Square in Cairo to protest the actions of Egypt’s military government.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Erick Stakelbeck, Gaia, Insubria, JP, KGS, Nilk, Rembrandt, TG, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

This past Monday, September 26, was the fifth anniversary of the founding of the 910 Group. I was still in London that day, so I couldn’t give the occasion its proper recognition until now.

The 910 Group was formed in the comments section on a Gates of Vienna post entitled “The Emperor is Naked”. People were motivated by the discussion there to found a Counterjihad action group. Several of them took the initiative and formed an online discussion group to recruit volunteers and discuss what could be done.

A few days later the name “910 Group” was adopted, and the above image became the logo for the organization. If you read through the comments on that first post and the ones that appeared during the weeks following, you’ll see a lot of names you recognize. Some of them are still active in the movement, and have become part of the “network of networks” that has emerged over the past five years.

In 2007 the group changed its name to the Center for Vigilant Freedom, and took on the CVF shield as its new logo. The phoenix at the center of the shield is the same as the one in the 910 Group logo emerging from the ashes of the World Trade Center. It ties the two organizations together in their common purpose.

The golden nodes with their interlocked connections on the periphery of the shield represent all the different groups that are linked with each other in the struggle against Islamization and sharia. Notice that there is no central node: this is a distributed network. It has no command structure, no hierarchy, and no central authority.

A year or so later CVF was folded into the International Civil Liberties Alliance, which retained the shield as its logo. The ICLA site reflects our extended network of associated groups. In addition to English, it publishes material in Spanish, Dutch, Italian, and German.

People who are ambitious — who want to become powerful leaders and boss everyone else around — quickly lose interest in ICLA, because that is not our modus operandi. We are forced to operate under conditions of official harassment and repression, meaning that a hierarchical structure would be vulnerable to “beheading”.

In contrast, a loose horizontally-organized structure is more flexible and resilient, and is better able to withstand attempts to dismantle it. There are so many nodes and so many interconnections that the network cannot easily be destroyed. If you remove any individual node, the effect is the same as taking down a server in a large computer network: the remaining servers route around it.

Six months after our founding we held our first Counterjihad conference in Copenhagen, and we have held at least one every year ever since. We work with a variety of groups, including political parties as well as all kinds of activist organizations. We are willing to talk to any group that shares our goals of resisting sharia and stopping the Islamization of the West, without any politically correct shibboleths to inhibit the discussion.

Happy birthday, 910 Group!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The two keywords in the 910 Group’s mission are Rebirth and Resistance.

Rebirth describes the process we all went through as we recovered from the trauma of 9-11. It signals the resolve to move from the grieving process — a passive position — to one of resolute action, which brings us to

Last week Dymphna wrote about EDL sympathizer Matthew Stiddard’s encounter with the police . The former Australian Defence League leader Martin Brennan — who is native English, and was deported from Oz recently for failing to file proper immigration paperwork — has been staying with Mr. Stiddard since his arrival in England. Tundra Tabloids also recently posted an article about Martin Brennan, which described the attempt by the police to “turn” Mr. Stiddard.

Now Matthew Stiddard has written his own statement about the whole affair, and Nilk has posted it at Vlad Tepes. She says:

My mate Martin Brennan has been staying with a fellow called Matthew Stiddard. Martin was deported from Australia officially due to a breach of visa, but seeing as Martin had never been in trouble with the police nor had any notification from DIAC about any visa irregularities, I wonder if that was really it.

That’s for another day, so we’ll leave that for now.

Matthew was interviewed by VladTepes, and I’ve also gotten to know him. He’s starting to get a bit of a profile now, and he’s concerned that there might be some misconceptions floating around with respect to his current police…. challenges … and what’s happening with the leadership of the EDL.

For the record, Matthew has never made any comment about why the police would be interested in Martin. In conversation he has made it quite clear that it’s not a path he would like to travel down.

On the 9th of April 2011 I made a video called Intifada on the request of the then leader of the Jewish Defence League and it went live on the WWW, shortly after this I started receiving threats of violence through my letterbox to the sound of nazi scum, fascist and many unpleasant four letter words, I took no notice of this and threw the letters in the bin, thinking that they were just words to scare me off. Then at the beginning of May that year I received a letter saying ‘fascist c**t, you are next’ doing what I always did throwing it in the bin only to be awoken two days later at around 1.30am to the sound of my windows being banged and being told that my Landrover Discovery was on fire and that the flames were lapping over my bungalow.

I hear you asking how did they find out it was my video, someone put their name to my video claiming that they did it, in a group on Facebook which at the time was filled with trolls (left wing nut jobs), what this person didn’t realize was that I always show my new video’s to a couple of people just before they go live, a sort of pre-screening well these people jumped to my defence and said it was not his claim but mine and gave my full name. My profile picture on Facebook is of my two dogs and at the time I had the name of the village were I lived, being of only 200 homes it wasn’t hard to find me especially when you have a large number of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) 10 miles up the road in Exeter. Stupid I know… since then I have had to be aware of what is around me and I have had to keep changing my routine when it comes to walking my dogs.

I have made 15 video’s all together 2 for different divisions of the English Defence League (EDL) and 2 for my fellow Australians, the rest was for myself highlighting different aspects of islam.

22nd of September 2011

On this morning at 8am BST police officers entered my home and immediately seizing my laptop and a number of mobile phones belonging to myself and Martin (who is currently staying with me while he sorts himself out) and was visiting his friends near London at the time. They even tried taking two musical CD’s by a band called Anglo Saxon thinking it was something to do with right-wing extremist propaganda. The police went into my bedroom and headed straight for Martin’s bag where he has clothing and his passport and documents of who he is and his deportation information. Two police officers spent between 40 and 60 minutes looking at these documents taking information from the documents and on two occasions taking his passport and other documents outside to make phone calls, only one can guess why they did this. They searched every corner of my home including the garden and the allotment up the road. I was then arrested due to medical grounds which have nothing to do with my chosen path in standing against the worldwide jihad movement. I was then taken to the police station to be formally charged.

According to breaking news reports, the American-born violent extremist Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed by a predator drone in Yemen. Mr. Awlaki (or “Aulaqi” — another Man of Many Spellings) was the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He has been cited as the inspiration for many of the recently captured mujahideen who were plotting terrorist attacks against the United States, Canada, and Europe.

This isn’t the first time that Mr. Awlaki has been reported whacked. So, even though the U.S. government has confirmed his demise, I’m going to reserve judgment for a few days to see if this story holds up.

SANAA, Yemen — Anwar al-Aulaqi, a radical U.S.-born Muslim cleric and one of the most influential al-Qaeda operatives wanted by the United States, was killed Friday in an airstrike in northern Yemen, authorities said, eliminating a prominent recruiter who inspired attacks on U.S. soil.

In Washington, a senior Obama administration official confirmed that Aulaqi is dead. Earlier, a senior counterterrorism official said U.S. intelligence indicates that the 40-year-old cleric, a dual national of the United States and Yemen, perished in the attack, the Associated Press reported.

The Yemeni Defense Ministry, in a text message sent to journalists, announced that “the terrorist Anwar al- Aulaqi has been killed along with some of his companions,” but did not provide further details. The report could not be independently verified; Aulaqi has been falsely reported killed before.

In a separate e-mailed statement, the Yemeni government said Aulaqi was “targeted and killed” five miles from the town of Khashef in Yemen’s northern Jawf province, 87 miles east of the capital Sanaa. The attack, the statement said, was launched at 9:55 a.m. Friday local time.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson was convicted of assault today in Preston Magistrates’ Court. The charge stemmed from an incident at an EDL demo last April at which Mr. Robinson was said to have head-butted a disaffected EDL member. The defendant vigorously denied that he had assaulted anyone, and says that the charge was a political one designed to keep him out of active involvement with the EDL.

In other news, the latest reports say that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had no fewer than six meetings with Libyan dictator Col. Muamar Kheddafi after Mr. Blair left office in 2007.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Gaia, Insubria, JP, KGS, Kitman, McR, Nilk, Rembrandt, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The Association of Muslim Police poster below was on display in Trafalgar Square last Saturday during the Eid Festival. The original photo of it was taken by Henrik Ræder Clausen of Europe News. I’ve removed the foreshortening to make it easier to see:

For those not aware of the political nature of Islam, it might come across as just a cultural amusement to see Islam still deeper entrenched in the British police force. Other countries, like Denmark and France, insist that religion has no role to play in policing. Not so in Britain.

No indeed.

Imagine, if you will, a police recruiting poster that read “Christians making a difference to policing.”

(KMOV) — An on-line political magazine, FrontPage Magazine, published a photo of a man with a Star of David, carved into his back. News 4 interviewed the man, who says he was attacked on Compton Avenue, just south of downtown on August 14th.

Alaa Alsaegh says that two cars followed him as he drove on Compton. The drivers cut him off and Alsaegh says he pulled over. That’s when two men got out of a car, armed with a handgun. They got into Alsaegh’s car and attacked him with a knife.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A would-be terrorist from the Boston area was arrested today on charges of planning attacks on the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon. U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz hastened to assure Americans that the planned attack was “not reflective of a particular culture, community or religion”.

In other news, diversity consultants in Britain recommend that teachers dress witch dolls in pink rather than black, put fairy dolls in darker shades, and eliminate white paper for drawing and coloring. These measures are said to be necessary to prevent racism from developing in very young children.

Meanwhile, the French government has warned that Iran’s continued refusal to renounce all intentions to produce nuclear weapons means that there is an increased likelihood of Western military action to thwart Iranian nuclear designs.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

[We have] just learned from Martin Brennan, a former leader of the Australian EDL, is being sought after by the British police for some unknown reason.

According to Brennan, he has participated in the Tower Hamlets demonstration, as well as the wreath laying ceremony at the American embassy in downtown London on 9/11. He also attended with the EDL Anjem Choudary’s disgraceful gathering for the purpose of burning the US flag on the same day.

Martin says he also took the time to hurl some insults at Choudary and his group on the day, during which time he was assaulted by a police officer. He managed to record footage of this.

Martin Brennan also informs the TT that he has on his phone some video from the 9/11 demo. He was outside the main body of the EDL, and so captured some interesting things there. He was supposed to head back to a friend’s house to upload it to a pc and then to youtube, but changed his mind and stayed on in town.

According to an anonymous source, police intelligence have just been around to a friend’s house looking for him, offering money for intelligence on Brennan. He said he didn’t know where Martin was. According to the anonymous source, the police said: “we’ll pay for you to go to some demos plus a bit of extra in your pockets to tell us who’s who and what’s what”. That’s a direct quote from Martin according to the anonymous source.

According to the unnamed source, Matthew’s response was a rather direct:”F* off, I’ll do ten years in prison instead.”

But back to Martin. The long arm of British law is crashing down on dissent, it appears that his having some phone video footage of a police officer breaking the law is the catalyst for the hunt. After all, while he was filming them, they were filming him. If he does indeed have video evidence of police brutality against EDL members, then there would be a need to get it before it’s uploaded to You Tube.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

You may remember — or not — when Matt Stiddon was detained by the police last week. First they searched his house, including his garden, for several hours. They also searched the belongings of his roommate —

During the course of Counterjihad London 2011, a group of participants took a little field trip to Trafalgar Square to see the Eid Festival, which took place on Saturday September 24. The event must have been well-attended, because even though we got there after Mayor Boris Johnson left, there was still a large crowd.

The main activities were the performances on the sound stage and the selling of food and merchandise at a series of booths and tables spread around the perimeter of the square:

Hard up against Nelson’s Column was the centerpiece for the occasion, a cave-like stage for performers:

When we arrived, very loud drumming was being blared over the PA system. Not long afterwards, it gave way to “Muslim rap”. It was hard to make out the lyrics, but the singer seemed to be rappin’ with Mohammed or something similar. Since I couldn’t hear all the lines, I made up some of my own that fit the hip-hop beat:

We’re down with Mohammed, can ya hear what I said?Better listen up, or get a fatwa on your head.

A huge screen on the other side of the fountain allowed everyone to see the rap singer clearly:

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

I just got back from London, and will compile a report about Counterjihad London 2011 after I’ve rested and recovered from jet lag.

In the meantime, here are some photos of notable landmarks visited during my sightseeing tours in the Greater London area. The first shot shows the former St. Mary’s Priory in (I think) Tottenham. You can see the niche containing a statue of the Virgin, with a cross above it. The inscription below the niche is the Ora Pro Nobis:

Now look at a close-up of the main entrance to the building:

“We Love You, Ya Mohammed Rasulullah”

Below the jump are three more stops on the tour of traditional English landmarks:

Monday, September 26, 2011

Jolie Rouge left a link to a doomsday video that echoes what the Baron has been saying. The subtitle is: "The Collapse Is Coming...And Goldman Rules The World"

Of course the little anchorette who was "speechless" will no doubt still have her government job.

Hey, if this guy isn't sleeping well, maybe we shouldn't be, either? It won't make us any less poor, but it provides a delusional sense of control if one lies awake and worries. Works for me. Kind of.

A comment from the Youtube page:

Run to dollars and treasuries?

I consider this guys motivations to be suspect.

Look! A guy who criticizes Goldman Sachs, who knows we're heading for a collapse, and who pals around with some "smart investors!" He's buying Dollars and Treasuries -I better go out and get some of those right away so I can﻿ protect myself and make money just like him!

What's his name? Shill Plant?

He sounds mighty like some of our astute readers, no?

So I'll amend my original statement: the Baron never did say he thought Goldman Sachs ran the world.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Birmingham terrorism charges: Three of six charged accused of planning to be suicide bombers - full charges in detail

September 25, 2011

Four men have this evening been charged with preparing for an act of terrorism in the UK, and two more with failing to disclose information. One has additionally been charged with terrorist fundraising.

The men, all from Birmingham, were arrested a week ago as part of a major operation carried out by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit.

The arrests were unarmed, pre-planned and intelligence-led.

A seventh man from the city, aged 20 and arrested on Thursday, continues to be questioned. Officers have until Thursday September 29 to charge, release or apply for a further warrant of detention.

The six charged are aged between 25 and 32 and will appear at West London Magistrates Court (Hammersmith) tomorrow afternoon.

Those charged are:

IRFAN NASSER (14/6/81) aged 30 of 55 Doris Road, Sparkhill

IRFAN KHALID (1/3/85) aged 26 of 35 Timbers Way, Sparkbrook

*ASHIK ALI (12/3/85) aged 26 of 23 White Street, Balsall Heath

RAHIN AHMED (28/7/86) aged 25 of 114 Moorcroft Road, Moseley

*BAHADER ALI (4/7/83) aged 28 of 27 Turner Street, Sparkbrook

MOHAMMED RIZWAN (3/2/79) aged 32 of 75 Asquith Road, Sparkbrook

I know what you’re going to say: “WHAT??!! Only ONE Mohammed?? However, the middle names of these terrorists have not been supplied, so who knows how many there really are.

*These two are brothers. Meanwhile, the two Irfans, Nasser and Khalid, seem to have accrued the most charges:

The Baron asked that this report from Europe News be posted. It seems that more Turkish atrocities have been revealed, dating back to the 1970s.

Quelle surprise!

The Secret Report on Turkish Atrocities in Cyprus
by Panos Ioannides

Breaking: The secret report from Council of Europe on Turkish atrocities in Cyprus during their 1974 invasion has been recovered. This report documents the systematic and extensive human rights violations perpetrated by the Turkish army against the Greek Cypriot population, raping an murdering thousands in order to force a mass exodus and an ethnic cleansing of the northern third of Cyprus. Turkey has never been held responsible for these atrocities and, in spite of all principles of international law, is still permitted to be in control of the fruits of their 1974 aggression, the so-called Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.

Unfortunately, the report linked at Europe news, called “Cyprus Barbary” is not available if all you have is a dial-up connection. Or maybe not so “unfortunately”. Zenster kindly looked at it for me and says it’s dense diplo-speak which lowers your IQ as you attempt to read it. Clever, those bureaucrats.

The Baron has been away for an eternity the last few days in England, meeting up with various Counterjihad activists. The culmination of his visit occurred today, when a group of activist leaders got together at a convivial location to discuss topics of mutual interest.
[Translator's note: a "convivial location" in Virginia would signify some place where the coffee cup never empties; or in the summer, the iced tea glass. In England it appears to mean a setting in which there are barrels and barrels of draft beer. I'm not sure whether one is given a half-pint glass or they simply hand each patron his own rubber siphon hose.]

The Baron said the focus of their discussion was the situation in Britain, with special attention to both the English Defence League and to preparations for the next general election. Since representatives from Europe were present, pan-European topics were also considered.

The following countries were represented at the meeting:

Austria

Canada

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Italy

Norway

Sweden

UK

USA

I don’t know any more than this at the moment. They don't tell me nuttin' - which is how I like it. Me brain is too cluttered as it is. The Baron will be returning to Schloss Bodissey later this week. He says he’ll give you a full report after he recovers from jet lag - to which I would add, and after he’s taken care of the various things that Entropy was busy with while he was gone.

Like what? Oh, like the belt on the vacuum cleaner that broke while the thing was busy sucking up my Kindle charger. No harm done to the Kindle connection (d.g.), but the vacuum cleaner smells of eau de burning tires and the brush doesn't roll anymore. Takes a little testosterone to wrestle the new belt onto that roll.

I think I’ll name our next pet “Entropy”.

And then there are those four hundred or more must-be-answered emails...so far...plus the broken internet satellite connection. I'm going to call the satellite people on Monday, but I've always noticed they respond better to phone calls from men, so it may take his voice to get their attention.

Maybe I'd better get in more coffee before he returns.

I do hope he remembered my kippered herrings.

How come the new improved version of anything never is? Now I'm having to put paragraph tags where a simple line break would do before. And it appears to be burping here and there.

They have a new better dashboard,too, which I refuse to open. At least while I have a choice in the matter. Soon they will make me an offer I can't refuse. Like the time they took away our archives until we installed the so-called Better Blooger. It's not.

Similar to the past when our operational units were deployed to the western and southern borders, our forces today must get ready to head towards North Africa, eastern Asia and the heart of Europe. We must get ready for global operations.

We’ve become old, but the next generation must be brought up such that they are ready from this day forward. In the next 3-4 decades, they must go to help and free their Muslim brothers in northern and southern Africa, eastern and central Asia and the heart of Europe. It has become an international effort; the revolution has been exported. We said it repeatedly that the revolution will be exported. Now, it is happening.

Our fellow fighters are present in all five continents of the world and are fighting against exploitation and imperialism everywhere. Preparations for the Coming [of Mehdi, the twelfth Imam of Shi'a] must be made. An international Jihad must be provoked; we must fear no one.

United States and the West bomb, loot and occupy without reservation anything, anywhere and whenever they please. They even officially announce that they are coming. Then they do come. If we quietly say that we are going to provide moral support to our brethren in Iraq and Palestine, they holler that we are interfering and are terrorists.

No, sir. We must decisively provide support. They announce their intention to occupy quickly; we ought to declare our anti-occupation efforts swiftly. We have a religious duty. The Islamic revolution of Iran is the mother to all Islamic revolutions. Imam [Khomeini] from the beginning stated, “We will export our revolution, and Iran is the second home to all religious fighters worldwide.” These are the exact words used by Imam. Don’t you recall?

Imam said, “We must destroy Israel and free Jerusalem.” We will do this and are doing it.If they said that we can’t do it, tell them, “we have done it so far.” The victory in Lebanon or Gaza is case in point. We’ll do the same with the rest.

We must stay alert. They quickly announce their intention to occupy; we declare our intentions to stand by Muslims and the oppressed all over the world. All this is written in our constitution clearly. Unfortunately, after Imam, in the 2nd and 3rd decades [following the revolution], some wanted to reduce tensions with the West and imperialists. What do you mean you want to reduce tensions? Did Imam reduce tensions [with the West]?

Imam talked about the war between the rich and the poor, the battle between the tyrants and the deprived, the fight to set Muslims free. He said that we wouldn’t allow them to continue to benefit from us.

In a matter of seven months, four Arab governments have been overthrown. No kidding! Hopefully, a few more will fall in the next 3-4 months or years. We must prepare ourselves for a global conflict. Those working in intelligence and underground subversive operations must get ready. Instead of going to the border regions, fighting fields are all over the world from now on. We must get ready to head to Latin America and eastern Asia to fight, go to central Asia to set our Muslim brothers free and head to the heart of Europe.

In the same way that everything changed in Lebanon and Palestine when our forces arrived at Lebanon. When they arrived at Bosnia, events changed there and in the Baltic region. Muslims in Bosnia were being defeated until our forces arrived. The message from our revolution and martyrs and the style of our Jihad brought about a turn of events. When our forces went to Lebanon, Palestine and Gaza, new developments took place.

Everyone says that Iran was behind the resistance [war] in Gaza. Even the Prime Minister of Israel stated that an Islamic Republic was formed next door in Lebanon and then in Gaza. After the most recent operations, an Islamic Republic will be formed in Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula.

You know those rumors that we’re in the pay of Mossad? [I wish!] Well, I thought I’d keep them afloat with a weekly Sabbath round-up. Given my tendency to tardiness, these collection will no doubt end up being posted some weeks on Monday afternoon, but for this inaugural event, we’re right on time.

Serendipitously, all of these are requests for posting that I received in the last day or so. The Karma Dude at work again.

In France the Muslims were in a rage were having their usual good time as they reacted to the news that France is prohibiting street prayers.

Vlad Tepes had this video about the situation, and a few choice editorial opinions:

[They]demand that Muslims take up arms against the French state while chanting ‘death to Jews’.

Translators note: We found most of what this person was screaming incomprehensible. We translated only what we could actually understand. By now however, I feel readers can translate the Arabic bits for themselves.

Well, if they had their way we’d all be speaking some form of Arabic or other. Might as well get in a little practice, eh?

Q: Whose fault is this?
A: "Death to the Jews!"
Q: What do you think the solution may be?
A: "Death to the Jews!"

See, they have a final solution for everything.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Perennial Question: Israel’s Survival

Whether or not Israel can survive is a query posed by her enemies with great hope, and by her friends with an abiding fear that as Israel goes, so goes the rest of the West.

In fact, it is the very idea of Israel as a linchpin, a canary in a coal mine (or whichever metaphor you’d choose) that makes her foes and even some of her frenemies act from within the depths of a primitive fear. They’ll never admit it of course but you can recognize them easily enough by their congenital inability to admire another, by their fundamental philosophy of scarcity, or by that existential anxiety we all have to one degree or another: plain old envy. Part of the human condition is the struggle to find the equipoise between envy and gratitude. Some people, and some cultures, never do.

Joshua Pundit looks at the question of Israel’s situation via Victor David Hanson’s National Review essay on the current danger. Hanson would have it that things are at their worst due to the many mortal enemies around her.

JH responds:

Hanson cites the Islamist regimes in Egypt and elsewhere brought on by the Arab Spring and their growing hostility to Israel, the genocidal influence of Iran and its missile armed proxies Hamas and Hezbollah, Erdogan’s Islamist Turkey, the huge influence of Arab petro-dollars, and the indifference and growing anti-Semitism in much of Europe and the exhaustion and debt of the United States.

In answering these issues, Joshua Pundit posits the past and current realities:

I would remind the eminent historian that Israel has faced far worst and survived. In 1948, the British left Palestine, but not before confiscating as many arms in the hands of Jews as they could find and turning over strategic locations to Israel’s genocidal enemies. In the year leading up to that conflict, the British armed the Arab nations with modern weapons including aircraft and tanks in spite of their open and explicit threats of jihad against Israel’s Jews. In the case of Jordan, the British not only trained the Arab Legion but officered it during the 1948 war and oversaw the ethnic cleansing of Jews from their homes in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem , led by a Jew hating British Colonel by the name of John Glubb, AKA Glubb Pasha. And this was a mere three years after the liberation of Auschwitz.

The Jews had no aircraft or artillery, and used homemade ‘Davidka’ mortars and improvised armored trucks as ‘tanks’. They were unable to purchase weapons from the United States because President Truman decided to put an arms embargo on both sides, something that affected Israel greatly and the Arabs not at all, since they were able to purchase arms openly from Britain and other European countries, many of whom were unwilling to sell arms to Israel for fear of angering the oil rich Arabs. In one of the ironies of history, a major cache of the arms the Jews used to win their war of independence were Nazi arms left over from the occupation of Czechoslovakia, purchased on the black market.

He reminds us that "the Jews prevailed...without the help of Europe, the United States, or the UN".

Look at the rest of his essay, as he outlines the various threats from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Hamas and Hezbollah, etc. ad nauseam. And as he realistically assesses the likelihood of help for Israel from anyone else.

Like the rest of us, he sees Iran as the wild card. And truly wild it is. Iran is destitute. Its young are not reproducing; women are turning to prostitution to pay their way. Iran’s oil ‘reserves’ are poorly managed and going fast. It soon will be facing food shortages.

The choice of a first name for the pathetic ‘Fjordland’ character wasn’t immediately obvious, so I asked our German translator why he thought the ‘comedy’ writers team chose that first name. Why Heine? Isn’t that German?

Oh, wait. He’s in his Nazi uniform in the screen cap.

JLH’s answer to my question actually crossed in our emails. In other words, he’d been thinking of the same thing. So he said:

I think I see the “logic” of the first name, Heine. The character is not only misogynistic, Nazi and paraplegic--he is also a closet Jew.

Heinrich Heine was the great 19th century poet who was exiled from his home by the authorities of various German states who found him to be undesirable and revolutionary. What better way to evoke contempt in their little quisling hearts than to combine a woman-hater, cripple and Jew and call them all “Nazi”?

One example of Heine’s attitude toward, for instance, censorship is this “essay”:

The university in his native Düsseldorf was named for him in 1988, after a stubborn, more-or-less underground resistance which was no doubt inspired by his Jewishness--despite that fact that he had converted to Protestantism.

Friday, September 23, 2011

I called the Wild Blue people to come out last week, and the woman at the office said "the person who handles that is out today but I'll leave a note on her door". Unh huh. Or maybe throw it out the window? Whatever. I got busy helping the Baron collect everything for his trip and making sure he wasn't carrying anything the TSA wouldn't like. So I forgot about Wild Blooger and it limped along.

Then today the connection slowed down yet again - because there was a drop of rain outside - so I went through the procedure of rebooting. But no go. That thing is deader than the lizard my cat left on the front porch this morning.

Thus, I am on a dial-up connection. It is not as bad a having a root canal or breaking down in the fast lane during rush hour, but it is unpleasant. Since the internet is no longer geared for dial-up connections, one learns to keep a book open to read while sites load.

So if your comments are slow to get out of the gate, that's why.

And there's no hope of anyone showing up until at least Monday. In fact, a Monday tech person standing on the doormat would be just barely short of miraculous. Let's say that at some point someone will come to replace whatever doohickey has shuffled off this mortal coil.

Posting will go on as I have the patience for it...what was it Hesperado said? Oh yeah...that we were "prickly and impatient" over here. Darn tooting we are! Especially when it comes to recalcitrant technology.

So this is sad notice to say that many emails may have to go unanswered for the nonce and posting will be SLOOOOW.

So far the comments are sliding out the chute, though. "Lots of praise for small graces", Momma always said. She said many other things, too, but I won't repeat them here.

The video below is an interview with Matthew Stiddon of the EDL, taken on August 29th 2011.

Vlad Tepes wrote about a new development last night, saying that Matt had been arrested:

The charges against Matthew are: (paraphrasing)

“up on 4 charges, including producing propaganda for inciting racial hatred, inciting racial hatred, making videos against religion, that sort of thing.”

Let me be as clear as humanly possible. Islam is not a race. It is an ideology and mostly political with its own racist hierarchy and its own legal system which it implements by force wherever it can. To oppose it is one’s moral duty. The fact that the British government is arresting people for chanting E. E. EDL in front of a mosque is totalitarian rubbish.

But the fact that they are jailing people for it for eight months [see link at original URL], likely in a place which is mostly populated by Muslims, shows a total contempt for the very legal system that was indeed invented in England, in other times. When England loved herself. When she led the world in invention, scientific advancement and the most just and fair legal system in the world. The one used by any nation in the world worth living in as evidenced by the massive waves of immigration into them.

Here is one of the videos he made for the Australian Defense League[link at original URL]. Even if this material was untrue, it should not be a criminal matter to make it. However no one, not the British government and not the far left claims that what the EDL, what Matthew Stiddon or what the poor fellow who was just jailed for eight months in a UK prison is saying is inaccurate.

Clearly what they are charged with, is interfering with the political elite in England’s plan to obliterate traditional British culture, law and history and replace with anything and everything else. Without ever asking whether the people of that Island, the people who cannot just pack up and go home, without asking them once if they wanted this.

I wonder who should be in prison.

Now I hear the police are looking for his room mate Martin.

This morning, Vlad sent me the email he’d received from Matt outlining his day-long “interviews” with the police:

Thursday, September 22, 2011

In Lampedusa, the detention center for North African refugees was set on fire. It was not set ablaze by evil radical rightists, however, but by the Tunisians themselves, 400 of them took advantage of the opportunity to flee. Where the others were accommodated is not recorded.

We can assume, however, that they will sooner or later land in the north of the EU or in Switzerland. That’s how it goes! We have given up any control over our borders. Anyone who wants to can saunter in and get up to anything he wants.

That last sentence is an understated scorcher, innit? Poor Italy.

Serendipitously, I found a video of the fire complete with Italian commentary. Even if you don’t understand Italian (and I don’t) it has a kind of meta-accuracy. Maybe it’s the vibrant voice:

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

In a totalitarian democracy, this is how you set someone up so you can take him down. It is sick and disturbing on its own, but the implications are terrifying for the victim of their demonization.

The image above is supposed to be a “satire” on Fjordman, but it’s far more than that. It's the planned takedown of an innocent man.

What you’re seeing is a still image from a ‘comedy’ that will air on Norwegian TV. Fjordman, called here “Fjordland”, is a paraplegic who can’t speak. Somehow this character is supposed to be a figure of fun. This is especially funny you see, because Fjordman is famous for his words. Thus having a “dumb” ‘Fjordland’ character is a scream.

This is not only sick, it’s a set-up. I have no proof of my theory, but from all appearances it would seem they plan to have Fjordman take the fall for Breivik’s behavior. Here are the steps by which I believe Fjordman will be criminalized and imprisoned. As you can see, it’s carefully choreographed:

In Part the Third, Zenster brings his opus to its full and final close.

Author’s note: This is the third of a three part essay dealing with Islamic terrorism and what can be expected regarding Islam’s ultimate fate. These articles are written in memoriam of the 9-11 atrocity’s tenth anniversary and are dedicated to the 3,000 innocent Americans who were murdered on that fateful day.

How Will it End?

Short answer ― The Muslim holocaust.

There is a proverb whose thread is found both in Aesop and the Bible. It reads:

“The clay pot should keep its distance from the iron kettle.”

Instead of keeping its distance, Islam has cozened its way into Western civilization and, parading under false colors as an alleged religion, it flies a counterfeit Liberal standard of interfaith Multiculturalism. Besotted with its own temporary successes and newfound “purity” ― through a recent reformation leaving it even more violent, intolerant, misogynistic and puritanical ― Islam is in the process of infiltrating Western civilization to an unprecedented degree. However, in this respect, it is the non-industrial Islamic clay pot that is getting too close to the militarily advanced Western iron kettle.

A Talmudic variation of this fable provides a different perspective: “If a pot falls upon a stone, woe to the pot; if a stone falls upon a pot, woe to the pot; either way, woe to the pot” (Esther Rabbah, 7:10). For Islam’s clay pot, violence is the stone. As Islam continues to embrace terrorism it is eagerly drawn to that stone with a dangerous degree of impetus. In its love of death and martyrdom, Islam puts the stone in precipitous motion, which just as often falls upon the heads of Muslims themselves.

In either case ― much as with so-called Islamic martyrdom ― Islam imprudently brings itself into proximity with danger and eventually this will prove its own undoing. Suffused with delusions of adequacy, Muslims think nothing of constantly antagonizing Western powers who long ago perfected industrialized warfare to an extent that Islam can only dream of, despite its supremacist fantasies.

Like a candle that sputters and flares, Islam casts outsized shadows which too many in the West mistake for genuine military potency. The exact opposite is true and it is only by using the asymmetrical warfare of terrorism that Islam holds any sway. It is a schoolyard bully writ large and every bit as cowardly. The brittleness of Islamic doctrine is too often confused with strength and its fanaticism taken for authority.

In a recent Berlin speech, Swiss Member of Parliament, Oskar Freysinger, noted that, “Islam is only as strong as we are weak.” One glimpse of how Islam remains almost entirely reliant upon Political Correctness to drive its Western agenda reveals that this parasitic entity’s success wholly depends upon the frailty of a civilization debilitated by Multiculturalism and self-doubt. This is underscored both by the physical compulsion and violence that lies beneath so much of Islamic doctrine and the fact that no nation in history has ever voluntarily adopted Islam without an application of force being involved.

Author’s note: This is the second of a three part essay dealing with Islamic terrorism and what can be expected regarding Islam’s ultimate fate. These articles are written in memoriam of the 9-11 atrocity’s tenth anniversary and are dedicated to the 3,000 innocent Americans who were murdered on that fateful day.

Why Will it End?

Short answer ― Islam has “unhappy ending” written all over it.

Tragically, for Islam there is no possibility of a happy ending. It has often been said that the only peace which Islam ― famously known as “The Religion of Peace” ― offers anyone is the peace of the grave. Pakistan ― which means “land of the pure” ―provides the best evidence of this in that it is a prototypical Islamic nation intended to mirror the everyday rule of shari’a law. That country’s horrific level of almost daily slaughter and mayhem clearly demonstrates how ― even if Islam were to attain global ascendancy ― the violence and terrorism would never stop.

The Islamic concept of takfir (“impure”), literally assures this in that a more devout Muslim is religiously sanctioned for killing a less pure Muslim. This lack of purity could be interpreted as someone who does not pray all five times a day or consumes food during daylight hours over the course of Ramadan. The possible paths descending into Islamic “impurity” are as numerous as they are varied and it is an ironclad guarantee that Islam will always be torn by internecine violence.

Exacerbating this situation is the West’s collective inability to discern Islam in general and why there is so little hope for it. It echoes the ancient parable about a group of blind men describing an elephant.

The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a tree trunk; the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a snake; the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a flag; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a spear.

Much to the glee of Muslims everywhere, most Westerners are still a lot like those blind men and the pachyderm. Islam is so voluminous and just sufficiently varied enough that it seems to defy description. This is especially so for the less informed who can but bear shocked witness to the endless discord and bloodshed that pervades the Islamic world. Only after gaining an understanding of Islam’s core doctrines does one obtain adequate perspective such that the elephant finally begins to emerge. The 9-11 atrocity was Western civilization’s first dawning awareness that the Islamic elephant is like a spear.

Islam is all of the above elephantine descriptions. It is a veritable tree trunk of a totalitarian creed whose roots extend over a millennium deep into recorded history. It is also a rope by which unsuspecting cultures have hung themselves many times over were they so foolish or unsuspecting as to disregard Islam’s historic threat. Like the asp which Cleopatra drew to her breast, Islam has routinely slithered away from history’s spotlight as the cause of ruined civilizations, genocides, mass enslavements and untold human suffering which transcend anything Europe or America ever aspired to in their wildest dreams.

Islam also manifests as a flag around which this world’s criminal elements continue to rally under a banner of religiously sanctioned murder, rape, pedophilia, looting and thieving which, terrorism aside ― as if that was even possible ― fills police blotters and drains global coffers with an almost enviable consistency unmatched by all but the most accomplished career politicians. Like any wall, Islam continually and everywhere builds enclaves which exclude unbelievers within their own domains and barricades Muslims from influences both external and even the threat of internal “westernization” that just as often sees young Muslim women murdered by their own families in so-called “honor killings”.

Last but, most certainly, not least is the way that Islam is like a spear:

Author’s note: This is the first of a three part essay dealing with Islamic terrorism and what can be expected regarding Islam’s ultimate fate. These articles are written in memoriam of the 9/11 atrocity’s tenth anniversary and are dedicated to the 3,000 innocent Americans who were murdered on that fateful day.

When Will it End?

Short answer ― It will end when the tipping point is reached.

This tipping point can be defined as follows:

When living with Islam becomes more trouble than living without Islam.

How often have you heard the following?

“Do not touch or move unattended parcels, bags or packages and report them to security.”

Everybody who reads these words has heard a variant of that announcement. It is a now-familiar litany that underscores most modern civilian travel like some sort of off-key drone note in an increasingly odious dirge. All forms of mass transportation involve similar, often intrusive, security measures and, overwhelmingly, one single entity is responsible for their necessity; namely, Islamic terrorism.

When will such public warnings finally be unnecessary? For how long are we supposed to put up with the risk of random terrorist attacks? Will our grandchildren be obliged to beware of abandoned parcels? Will their grandchildren have to do the same? How much longer will the civilized world continue to tolerate this preposterous assault upon its wellbeing and general quality of life?

When will it end?

If it was possible to set aside terrorism-related loss of life ― and it most certainly is not ― the financial cost alone of combating it is absurd. Let us examine just one single factor; increased waiting times at airports. An extra hour or three doesn’t seem like much until you start doing the math.

Some 1.5 million passengers per day originate from American airports. Domestic flights have a one hour minimum wait time and international travel requires an early check in of at least three hours. We will split the difference and use an average of two hours wait. Even though a majority of domestic flights are not international, please rest assured that this slightly top-heavy coefficient will barely compensate for many other downstream factors.

Two hours of wait time multiplied by 1.5 million passengers equals 3 million working hours lost due to increased airport waiting periods. Airport WiFi services do not begin to counteract these losses in productivity because of how fax machines and other appurtenances of regular business life are usually inaccessible near the tarmac. That represents 3 million hours of lost productivity each and every day just in America alone.

The USA per capita annual income is approximately $40,000, which equals a little over $20.00 per hour. With 3 million working hours lost per day at $20.00 per hour, we are now looking at $60 million per day in effective lost wages. The actual cost is probably much higher due to how frequent airline travelers most likely earn a lot more than the national average.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

This news feed was set up much earlier today, so some of the latest “breaking news” items may be missing.

Notice the story about the car bomb in downtown Istanbul, which killed at least three people. As of this writing, there’s still no claim of responsibility, but the Turkish authorities appear to think the culprits were the PKK.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

EthicalOil.org is a non-profit which promotes the development of Canadian oil sands as an ethical substitute for oil originating in Saudi Arabia or other backward and repressive dictatorships. The group created a television ad highlighting some of the cultural features of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, especially its treatment of women.

The Saudis were not happy with this ad, and hired a huge law firm to intimidate Canadian broadcasters by threatening to sue them. No actual lawsuits, mind you — just the threat of lawsuits.

Ezra Levant — who originated the “Ethical Oil” concept by writing a book with that title — received a tip about what was going on, and uncovered the whole sordid story. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this clip from SUN TV:

Monday, September 19, 2011

Italian magistrates investigating an alleged prostitution ring have published a series of government wiretaps targeting the man suspected of being the primary procurer for the ring. A number of these wiretaps include conversations with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is revealed as having had a, well, lusty disposition towards dozens and dozens of well-paid young women. One report says that two women were flown to Italy from the UK, at a cost of tens of thousands of euros, just to service the prime minister. The Italian papers are full of the scandalous news, and Mr. Berlusconi’s popularity in the polls has fallen to a new low.

In other news, a phone manufacturer in India is marketing a new Islamic mobile phone, which comes with special software that remembers prayer times, calculates zakat, and performs a host of other important Islamic functions. The company says the device has earned the approval of leading Islamic scholars.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Insubria, JP, KGS, Kitman, McR, Rembrandt, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The following essay was adapted from a brief comment made by Vlad Tepes. It has been expanded at his request.

In some ways, merely discussing the legitimacy of Israel as a nation grants a victory to her enemies.

Do we every hear any discussion about whether or not Saudi Arabia or Pakistan deserve to exist?

And how about Bosnia, which cobbles together three different mutually antagonistic ethnic groups, none of which forms a majority of the population?

To put it bluntly, no matter how you contextualize the arguments — whether historically, religiously, etc. — Israel is a more natural nation-state than Pakistan, whose official raison d’être as a modern state is tenuous in comparison with Israel. Yet no one is debating its legitimacy. Not even India.

Israel’s enemies often refer to it as an “apartheid state”. This characterization is one of the principal strategies for delegitimizing the nation of Israel.

Saudi Arabia, however, is a true apartheid state in at least two ways:

Four sub-Saharan Africans died off the coast of Algeria last week in an attempt to reach Lampedusa. Nine others were rescued from certain death by the Algerian coast guard.

I’ll have more on this story later on in this post, but first the news on the latest arrivals in southern Italy.

413 culture-enrichers have landed in Italian territory since my last update, which is not enough to warrant raising the temperature on the Cultural Enrichment Thermometer. However, it brings the year-to-date total to just over 55,000.

Not all of the new refugees landed on Lampedusa. A group of Afghans — probably transiting through the Balkans and crossing the Adriatic — landed at Salento, in the heel of the Italian boot.

31 Afghans Picked Up After Landing in Salento Area

(AGI) Lecce — Thirty-one Afghans who landed illegally on the Salento coast have been picked up by carabinieri and finance police. According to the migrants they arrived aboard a large rubber dinghy that sailed from Greece.

(AGI) Palermo — Another boat of immigrants has made landfall on Lampedusa. 95 Tunisians, including 2 little girls, reached Lampedusa during the night after being rescued at 30 miles from the island by a Guardia di Finanza patrol boat. All the migrants were transshipped on another Guardia di Finanza ship because the boat adrift had an engine failure which made it impossible for it to continue its course.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

The regime in Iran is cracking down on young people who engage in water fights in a park in Tehran. The park has become the favored place for youngsters to take part in the latest craze: battles with squirt guns and plastic bottles full of water. The regime considers this sort of fun sinful, not least because young people of both sexes mix to play the game. In addition, the mullahs have determined that the practice was introduced by foreign agents, and may be a precursor to political unrest.

In other news, at the instigation of Geert Wilders, the Dutch government is ready to ban the burka. The Interior Ministry says that the cabinet has been presented with the plan, and will definitely approve it.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Insubria, Kitman, Money Jihad, Rembrandt, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

As we reported last month, the Canadian journalist David Menzies was physically attacked by a Muslima for taking photographs in a public place in downtown Toronto.

Six weeks later, the woman who punched Mr. Menzies has not been charged. The police have stonewalled him in his efforts to acquire more information about his case. They have even treated him as if he were the perpetrator of a crime that day in Dundas Square — an indication that the civic authorities in Toronto are now prepared to enforce sharia law, even on non-Muslim citizens.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this update from Mark Bonokoski’s program on SUN TV:

Kreuzberg: Talina (11), Svenja (11) and Jason (9) do not understand a word spoken on the playground. Their classmates speak only Turkish or Arabic. In class, the three of them explain German words to their classmates.

They are the last German children at their school, The Jens Nydahl elementary school on Kohlfurter street (Kreuzberg). 99% of the 313 students are from an immigration background. The parents of 285 of them are financially supported by the state. One of the many school problems Bild reported on.

Talina attends 6th-year class. Mother Maria (45) says: “When she started school, she could write and read her first words. Her classmates could not even say ‘Thank you,’ ‘Please’ or ‘Good morning.’ The German children are teased as ‘pork gobblers.’”

As you may recall, back in June a huge controversy developed over the “mosqueteria” at the Valley Park Middle School in Toronto. Not only did the Toronto District School Board allow Islamic prayers in the cafeteria during the school day, but the participants were segregated by sex. To make matters even worse, menstruating girls were required to sit separately from other girls.

The furor over the issue has not died down over the last three months; it may even be intensifying. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this news report from Canadian television:

In last night’s essay about refusing to play the Left’s game, this was one of my concluding thoughts:

Islam is not the problem. The problem lies in the rules forced on us through more than a half-century of Leftist dominance. Islam would never have made such devastating inroads into our culture if the vast majority of Westerners had not unwittingly accepted those rules.

A reader in Canada sent the following email in response:

But Baron, doesn’t your statement that Islam is not the problem go counter to your own header line about a new phase of a very old war? Granted that the West’s dhimminess today is a major factor, Islam itself has always been a problem. People like Ibn Warraq… Wafa Sultan… Nonie Darwish… and many, many others have said so in rather forceful terms.

My response was to repeat what I have been saying in this space for the past five years or so:

Islam is the immediate problem, but it is not the core problem.

The underlying systemic problem is the cultural rot in the West, which mandates mass immigration as a good, and demonizes traditional Western culture. This has allowed Islam to enter, take root, thrive, and become a threat.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

At an air show in Reno, Nevada, a vintage plane went out of control and crashed into the crowd, killing the pilot and eight spectators, and injuring dozens of others. The pilot, Jimmy Leeward, was a 74-year-old veteran stunt pilot. Spectators said that just before his plane went out of control, a piece of the tail assembly detached itself and dropped away. They also say the pilot attempted to maneuver the plane away from the crowd.

In other news, President Obama has announced a plan to raise the minimum tax rate on millionaires. He wants to make sure that the very rich pay at least the same rate as the middle class.

Meanwhile, the rebel victory in Libya has not stopped the flow of refugees into Tunisia. 11,000 Libyans reportedly crossed the border at Ras Jedir on Wednesday.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Egghead, Insubria, JP, KGS, MH, SL, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The following essay is based on a series of group emails and skype discussions which took place over the past few weeks.

This synthesis attempts to draw attention to the meta-rules governing all discussions that take place within what we call the “mainstream” culture, especially the media. If we are to reverse the ongoing destruction of Western society, we must devise a new set of sane, healthy meta-rules for conversations about Islam, immigration, and Multiculturalism.

Main Premises:

1.

Media coverage of the Counterjihad is stacked against us.

2.

This overwhelming disadvantage can’t be significantly improved.

The organs of the Socialist Left have a stranglehold on all discourse about Islam, immigration, Multiculturalism, etc. This stranglehold is maintained through the iron grip of the Left on education, NGOs, large corporations, the media, and the permanent bureaucracy.

Each new generations is even more brainwashed than the previous one, guaranteeing that the demonization and marginalization of people like us will only intensify. We cannot improve our standing to any useful extent in the media without conceding the Left’s major arguments about immigration, Multiculturalism, and “racism”.

The New Mainstream

During the immediate aftermath of the massacre in Norway, one of our people expressed his despair over the situation. He said, “Now we’ve lost any chance of even partially winning over the mainstream.”

My response was, “Forget the mainstream. We never had a chance anyway. We will create our own mainstream.”

This may sound grandiose, but when “we” are thousands of people who follow the same program independently, we create a new common discourse that abandons any elements of the current mainstream. When enough people adhere to such a strategy, the “mainstream” becomes irrelevant, and eventually withers away.

In order to build a coherent set of values that reflects what the vast majority of Westerners support — the new mainstream, in other words — we must refuse to accept the basic premises that inform what now passes for “mainstream” thought. We do not accept the validity of those premises, so we must decline to enter any discourse based on them.

The Game is Rigged

The media game is rigged against people who believe what we believe.

The rules of the game state that it can only be won by someone who accepts the “mainstream” premises about immigration and Multiculturalism. Players are “racists” if they do not accept those premises.

Examples of the ground rules of the game which all players must accept if they expect to win:

1.

Immigration is a good thing; it enriches our culture.

2.

Our society has a history of racism and intolerance for which we must atone by becoming more open and inclusive to foreign cultures.

3.

To oppose the importation of foreigners from widely different (and often antagonistic) cultures is to be guilty of racism.

4.

No culture is inherently preferable over any other culture. They are just different. In fact, if anything our own culture is somewhat lacking. Therefore, by importing foreign cultures, we improve our own.

We cannot win this game.

According to the rules of the game, the only way to win is to acknowledge the truth of the above premises. If we do that, we have joined forces with our enemies. If we don’t, we lose the game.

There are two teams in the game, the “Islamophobes” and the “Multicults”. In effect, the only way for the Islamophobes to win the game is to defect to the other team and join the Multicults.

That’s not much of a “victory” in my book.

Forget About Partial Victory

Without realizing it, up until now we have been attempting to gain a partial victory in this absurd game.

By denying that we are “racists” (“We have a lot of Jews in our organization!”), repudiating “racist” groups (“We have nothing to do with the BNP or the KKK!”), and agreeing that we love foreign cultures, we hope to gain at least a few yards against our opponents.

As Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan famously said, “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.” The German Catholic hierarchy has decided to help the Turkish invaders build their barracks, affix their bayonets, and bring their faithful soldiers into Germany.

Auxiliary Bishop Jaschke said: “We Christians support the construction of lovely mosques. I think it is conceivable that Christians will give Muslims presents at the opening of a new mosque.”

Hamburg (kath.net/KNA) — The Hamburg auxiliary bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke has called for the construction of new mosques in Germany. At the same time he called on Christians symbolically to support the opening of such buildings. “I think that it is conceivable that Christians will give Muslims presents at the opening of a new mosque — as a sign of sympathy, good neighbourliness and religious solidarity,” said the spokesperson for the German Bishop’s conference for interfaith dialogue as reported in Hamburg’s daily paper, Die Welt.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Carnita Matthews is a Muslim woman in New South Wales who was asked by a policeman to remove her face veil to identify herself during a traffic stop. She was later convicted by a magistrate for filing a false and malicious report of racism against the policeman, who she said tried to force her to remove her veil. She later won her case on appeal, on the basis that it could not be proved that she was the veiled woman who had filed the false complaint. Now she has added a new level of chutzpah to her actions by suing the government to recover her court costs.

In other news, the United States, Japan, Britain, and Switzerland have joined the ECB in an intervention to save several troubled European banks. The five central banks will provide emergency loans to bring liquidity to those European banks that are most exposed to junk-status Greek debt.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Diana West, Egghead, Gaia, Insubria, JP, Nilk, PK, Rembrandt, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

In the aftermath of the jihad attacks in Washington D.C. and New York City on September 11, 2001, many thousands of Americans — even millions — became sensitized to the issue of Islam.

Most of us had never thought that much about it before. Muslims were just strangely-dressed foreigners, not particularly distinguishable from Hindus or Sikhs. We were vaguely aware that their exotic customs were related to their religion, but that’s where our knowledge ended. We regarded them with that vague, well-intended, but ill-informed tolerance that is a part of the American character.

Starting on the afternoon of 9/11/2001, a large number of Americans became interested in learning more about Islam. A few days later George W. Bush managed to lull some of them back into somnolence with his reassurances about the “religion of peace”, but others resisted such bland platitudes. Disregarding the official line on Islam, they looked more deeply into the history and teachings of Mohammed and his successors. Websites were established, non-profit resistance organizations were formed, and what is now called the Counterjihad took shape.

Ten years on, the number of dedicated anti-jihad information warriors has dwindled, perhaps by an order of magnitude or more. The remaining activists, however, are well-informed and committed to the cause.

What happened on September 11th generated what might be called a “9-11 consciousness” in those who were susceptible. People who stared at the screen all day and through the evening, and watched the horrific replays over and over into the wee hours of the morning. Who woke up the next day to the smoking heap of rubble. Who saw the smoldering gap in the Pentagon and the crater in Pennsylvania. Who watched the holes at Ground Zero take shape over the following months.

People with 9-11 consciousness never let go of the idea that something dangerous and demonic was loose in the world. They now recognized a force for evil that most of them had not noticed previously. From then on, however, they knew that they would have to resist it and push it back into the dark lands where it originated.

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For some people, 9-11 consciousness began long before September 11th, 2001.

Bat Ye’or, for example, had been warning for years about the danger of Islam in Europe. Andrew McCarthy, the prosecutor of the terrorists who made the first attempt to bring down the World Trade Center in 1993, was at least eight years ahead of most people in his awareness of what was happening.

9-11 consciousness was first awakened in me thirty years ago, when I read Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey by V.S. Naipaul. When I finished it, I told Dymphna: “In twenty or thirty years we’re going to be at war with Islam. It can’t be avoided; the true believers will not be willing to co-exist with us.”

My awareness of what was coming lay dormant for twenty years, awakening briefly from time to time. The CIA funding and training the mujahideen of Afghanistan itched at my mind, and a little voice told me, “This doesn’t seem like such a good idea in the long run.” Then the first attack on the World Trade Center, and Khobar Towers, and the embassy bombings in Africa, and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole. Each of these was a reminder of what V.S. Naipaul had written.

That beautiful, awful September day reactivated my 9-11 consciousness permanently, but it was V.S. Naipaul who started it all back in 1981.

Mr. Naipaul is an atheist from Trinidad, but his family background is Hindu. No group has suffered more from the murderous depredations of Islam than the Hindus of the Indian subcontinent, so his approach to the writing of his book lacked any illusions about the “religion of peace”.

The author began his journey in Iran just after the Islamic Revolution, in 1979. He spent some time with mullahs and the ayatollahs as well as ordinary citizens, listening to what they had to say and trying to understand them on their own terms. He then traveled to other parts of the Islamic world in the Middle East and South Asia, studying the Islamic revival in both its Sunni and Shi’ite variants.

He concluded that Islam’s great awakening was a result of the confluence of Islam, oil money, and the revolutionary ideologies of the 20th century. Out of this toxic mix emerged a hybrid that was peculiar to our time and unique in the history of Islam. In the final paragraph of his book, V.S. Naipaul wrote:

The life that had come to Islam had not come from within. It had come from outside events and circumstances, the spread of the universal civilization. It was the late twentieth century that had made Islam revolutionary, given new meaning to old Islamic ideas of equality and union, shaken up static or retarded societies. It was the late twentieth century — and not the faith — that could supply the answers — in institutions, legislation, economic systems. And, paradoxically, out of the Islamic revival, Islamic fundamentalism, that appeared to look backward, there would remain in many Muslim countries, with all the emotional charge derived from the Prophet’s faith, the idea of modern revolution. Behzad the communist (to whom the Russian rather than the Iranian revolution was “the greatest turn in history”) was made by Islam more than he knew. And increasingly now in Islamic countries there would be the Behzads, who, in an inversion of Islamic passion, would have a vision of a society cleansed and purified, a society of believers.

Iran was not the only country where revolutionary communism influenced jihad doctrine, and the Shi’ites were not the only sectarians thus affected.